1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a video transcoding apparatus for a digital television (TV) receiver or a digital video appliance, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method of transcoding a video snap image.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Recently, to reduce the storage and transmission capacity of digital video and audio signals, an MPEG encoder has been used.
Especially, as diverse applications such as a video search, picture-in-picture (PIP), video combining, video editing, conversion of transmission bit rate, etc., are required with respect to a compressed bit stream, there has been a demand for video transcoding methods that convert a specified bit rate of the MPEG bit stream into another bit rate.
For example, such video transcoding methods may convert an MPEG-2 bit stream into a bit stream of H.263, convert a digital video (DV) format that is a digital output of a digital camcoder into an MPEG bit stream, or convert a high-definition (HD)-class MPEG bit stream of a high picture quality into a standard definition (SD)-class MPEG bit stream of a low picture quality.
Generally, the above-described transcoders adopt encoding methods in which an MPEG decoder reduces the bit rate of the bit stream, and then the bit stream is encoded to the MPEG bit stream.
However, if it is required to search contents of the MPEG bit stream after the MPEG bit stream is stored in a storage device such as a hard disc drive (HDD), the search should be performed after the whole contents of the HD-class MPEG bit stream is decoded, and this causes the search to be inconvenient and to take a lot of time.